*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Free is difficult to beat. But......as you point out there might be a problem with compatibility with modern operating systems. Plus....as in my case...64 bit is becoming the dominant configuration and, doubting Thomas that I was, I have to admit I'm spoiled because my desktop runs quite a lot faster than my 32 bit laptop. As far as the photo editing software is concerned.....Adobe has made considerable improvements. I'm using PhotoShop Elements version 10 and version 11 has been out for several months now. I'm not sure but I think the current Creative Suite is version 6. I haven't been following it. The big positive I can see is that....hopefully....down the line when you move up to a current OS you could save quite a bit of money on upgrades. That is if Adobe allows it. If, indeed, this is a valid deal....it is a surprise to me that Adobe is doing it....considering how much their stuff costs.

The main reason I went with PhotoShop Essentials 10 is because it contains nearly all of the features of the full-blown PhotoShop and, in my case, still more than I know how to use. Plus.....I picked up my boxed copy at Staples for $65 last year. I've tried a lot of different photo editing programs over the years. My second favorite was Corel's Paint Shop Photo Pro. I had version IV. But I have now settled on the PS Essentials program. I just like it the best of anything I've used. It might surprise you to know that...for printing....I still use my old, old version 5 of Paint Shop Photo Album which dates back to when it was owned by JASC. Every time MS upgrades the Windows OS I hold my breath. But due to Windows ability to be set for compatibility with older programs I've been able to successfully set it to use this old app with my Windows 8. THAT was a big surprise for me.

I assume you can pick and choose the programs you want from that list????? I agree that it does have the ear marks of "too good to be true" doesn't it?

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money.
.......Margaret Thatcher

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Free is difficult to beat. But......as you point out there might be a problem with compatibility with modern operating systems. Plus....as in my case...64 bit is becoming the dominant configuration

I truncated your reply as I'm still digesting the other parts of it, lol. Apparently to make it run on 64 bit, you, in the installer wizard, type [X]:\Progra~2\Adobe for the installation path for the installation path. Then it should be good.

$65 is good for elements but I like free.

This is appealing to me as I have a huge, 500 page book on getting the most out of Photoshop Elements 5.

I hope that Adobe is sincere in giving it away. AND why not? They could make it adware. They could put blurbs in the software saying what more the new CS3, 4, 5 sand so on, have to offer. I know that many big universities are allowing you to basically take their undergrad courses for free. And why? You don't get anything OFFICIAL out of it but they have peaked many a persons interests into paying for it.

There is a move afoot to go to a "pay what you can / pay what you think it's worth." FREE may be able to get folks into the exciting worlds of photography, digital artwork and they may then be Adobe customers for a long time - paying customers.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

I went to the Adobe download site and, indeed, there they were. Just waiting to be plucked. So I signed in. I'm already registered on their site because I own one of their products. They have that same list that you posted....apparently for both Mac and Win. Just for fun I downloaded 3 of them and saved the files in a folder for possible later use. They're BIG files so it took a while. Serial numbers are displayed next to each download on the Adobe site. I don't see anything on the site that has the word "free" in it. Am I to assume that, if I do install....say Acrobat Pro 8.0....the displayed serial number will be all I need to activate it? Heck...I don't know. You go first, Dave. Let me know how

it works.

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money.
.......Margaret Thatcher

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Dave, just for fun I went ahead with the install of Premier Pro 2.0. To complete the installation I had to move the folder containing the install files to the root directory of my C: drive. Until I did that the install program could not find some file and would hang up.

Otherwise everything went fine and the program booted up and ran in my Windows 7, 32 bit OS.

Of course I'll need an instruction manual to figure out how to use it. Adobe programs are not for shy folks.

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money.
.......Margaret Thatcher

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Dave, if you shoot your digital photos in RAW file format....the CS2 won't recognize that format. BUT there is a work around. You download Adobe's DNG conversion app. It is also free. After you load your RAW files from your camera into your PC....you run the conversion app on all of them at once and you will then be able to use them in CS2 PhotoShop. PS will treat them very much like a RAW file and you can make all the same adjustments that you would be able to do with RAW. Of course....if you only work with JPEG format this information is all moot.

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money.
.......Margaret Thatcher

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.